Re-Enlistment Day Standing in the entrance to my house, 11 Heinrich-Koch Strasse, Weilerbach Germany, August 2nd, 1976

My home life for the previous year had been in a word, uncertain. I returned from Japan in August 1971 and quickly learned that the service stations my father had owned and operated in Allentown were closing, and my parents were divorcing. I started my senior year of high school at William Allen under a cloud and also because of these events, my family was facing financial difficulties.

In 1971, I was making some tentative plans for life after high school. Our local top-40 radio station, WAEB, had hired me as a part-time announcer, gofer, and also I worked remotes, mostly at the Allentown YMCA where they put on dances during Saturday nights. I wanted to attend broadcasting school and go into radio full-time after high school. However there was no money available for that, nor was there for college.

In May 1972, while still a student in High School, I had the opportunity to speak with Technical Sergeant Ron D. Kreis of the United States Air Force. Tsgt Kreis was meeting with those students who hadn't committed themselves to attend college that coming fall and presented opportunities in the United States Air Force. When I went to meet him at the recruiting office which was then located at the Post Office building at 5th & Hamilton streets, he informed me that I could enter the Air Force and, if I qualified, join the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

At the time, I did have other plans for the upcoming summer. I had signed a contract to work at Pioneer Camp for the Boy Scouts as the Commissary/Trading Post manager. After graduation in June, I went to Camp Trexler about a week later to help set up things prior to the summer camp season opening.

It was during that first week at Camp Trexler things changed. Basically, I didn't get along very well with the Pioneer Camp director, and he didn't get along very well with me. Also, my mother received a call from TSGT Kreis informing her that some openings in the Air Force had come up, and was I interested in pursuing them. When she told me this, I notified the Pioneer Camp Supervisor that I would be resigning from the camp staff to join the Air Force during the last week of June.

After the 4th of July weekend, things started to happen quickly. I was sent over to Easton to take the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), and to Philadelphia for a military entrance physical. I scored very well on the AFQT and was qualified for about 90% of the career fields the Air Force had at the time. ALso, I passed the enterance physical. TSGT Kreis informed me that the next opening available to join the Air Force was August 2nd. That was about two weeks away.

I joined the United States Air Force on Wednesday, 2 August 1972. It was the longest day of my life.

The morning of August 2nd, I woke up about 3am. I was instructed to take basically, nothing but the clothing I wore, as the Air Force would be issuing me uniforms and other items. The bus left Allentown about 5am for Philadelphia where I was taken to the Armed Forces Examination and Entrance Center (AFEEC).

Flight 925, 3723rd Basic Military Training Squadron, Lackland AFB TX September 1972. MSGT Williams.. was our MTI.. He's got the hat and all the ribbons... I'm in the back row.. 2nd from the left.

About 9am that morning I took the enlistment oath, signed my enlistment contract and joined the United States Air Force. I was an Airman Basic, to be paid $244/month. The term of my enlistment was for 48 months. I was informed that I would be leaving for San Antonio Texas, to attend basic training at Lackland AFB, and the bus I needed to get on was though that door.

The flight from Philadelphia to Houston was uneventful, then we changed planes and had a short flight to San Antonio. UP to this point, there was a group of us, about 20 or so, that stayed together. We had been given instructions at the AFEEC office on where to go and how to get to San Antonio. When we arrived about 8pm we were met by some Air Force Training Instructors, which we learned to call TI's. These were not the nicest people you ever met.

There were several inbound flights of recruits arriving that evening. We were first informed that we were not to talk or speak unless spoken to directly by a TI. That we were to form up in a formation and when called, were to go directly to the bus, sit down and not to talk. Welcome to the United States Air Force.

When I use the word 'instructed', I am not referring to someone politely telling you what to do. TI's have this way of enforcing their will on you, in a very loud voice and direct manner. You don't have a choice in the matter. You simply do what they tell you to do, and avoid doing anything that draws their attention.

The bus trip to Lackland AFB took about 30 minutes. The best way to describe it was very disorienting. It was years later actually, when I visited San Antonio as a civilian, that I actually figured out exactly where I was. The bus ride was in the dark and there was nothing familiar to give me a point of reference to exactly where I was. We arrived in the dark and were instructed to enter this building. That is where we received our initial screening and assignment to our Basic Training flight. Mine was Flight 925 and I was assigned to the 3723rd Basic Military Training Squadron. We were informed to fill out this postcard with our name and home address, as well as my military address. This would be sent home to inform our families that we had arrived safely.

More forms were filled out, and eventually we were broken out by flights and put on another bus. This took us to the chow hall, where I had my first taste of cuisine in the Air Force. I suppose it was about midnight At this point I was up for about 24 hours and even though I was tired, my day had not yet ended. In the chow line, I saw various breakfast cereals, eggs, potatoes, and this white, milky substance that had these strange lumps in it and I had no idea what it was.

Eventually, I would learn to enjoy that strange substance. It's official name was chipped beef on toast. It's common name was SOS. Even to this day, 35 some years later. Every time I think of SOS, I get this smile on my face, as SOS was there in all my subsequent travels and adventures the Air Force provided me. SOS mixes well with toast, scrambled eggs, and even with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

After chow, in which we were instructed to eat in silence, and then were instructed to march out of the dining hall, and form up on this concrete pad outside. We went though this procedure called "Dress Right Dress", where if the man in front of you was taller than you were, that you moved up and the other went behind you. Then we did the same with the person to the right. That way, each flight had the shortest person in the first position, of the first row. There were four rows, 10 of us to each row, and the tallest person was the last person of the fourth row. The first row was then instructed to march through this door, go up the steps and start to march behind the beds, the second row followed the first, the third followed next, and the fourth row went last. All 40 of us. In the dorm we were told to stop at the bed next to the man who stopped in front of his. To be quiet and only be spoken when spoken to.

There were three TI's in the dorm room. One was MSGT Williams, he would be our Head TI for the next six weeks. He was assisted by SSGT Runkle, and also A1C Tomlinson.

I recall we were asked if anyone in our group was from Texas. Other questions asked were if there were any prior-service members, and if anyone had any college education. Several of our group were in the Army or Navy, and they were selected as our Dorm Chief or Squad Leaders. At this point we were instructed to remove all of our clothing and place it in a cloth laundry bag which we found on the chair behind us. Also to put on the air force drawers and t-shirt which was folded on the chair. We were also to label the laundry bag with our name and SSAN. Our civilian clothing was then collected by one of our group. We wouldn’t see it for the next six weeks. About 3am we were finally allowed to get into bed, and were allowed about 4 hours sleep.

The first few days of basic was a very regimented process. The TI's were very strict on us, and we had about 10 or so people drop out. We were issued uniforms, filled out many forms, and were marched and had extended sessions of physical training. This was the 'shaking out' period. It's strange that even now, over 35 years later, I can recall faces and names of people from my flight. and even a few names that dropped out.

After a month, we were permitted to select three career fields from a list of technical school slots scheduled to open near the end of Basic.. This was after the slots that were taken up by guaranteed enlistment contracts were taken. My AQE scores enabled me to enter virtually any career field in the Air Force.. and the ones I selected were Information Management (Public Relations), as I had been in radio while I was in high school; Communications Specialist, working with various pieces of comm gear; and Aerial Defensive Fire Control Operator, also known as a B-52 Tail gunner..

Naturally, the assignment I was given didn't even appear on the list: "Inventory Management Specialist"

Finally, on 20 September, the big day arrived. Graduation from Basic Training. Due to a large number of people in my flight who were six-year enlistees (actually most of them were prior service Army Vietnam Veterans who decided that an enlistment in the Air Force was a lot better than toting an M-16 in the bush of Southeast Asia).. that left no stripes available for the four-year enlistees.. such as myself. We marched on the parade grounds, and later that day, was sent to my Technical Training assignment, Lowry AFB, in Denver Colorado.

Graduation photo from course 3ABR64530, Lowry Technical Training Center, November 1972.

I still remember getting the tech school assignment to Denver... everyone was telling me how lucky I was to go there. However I had no idea what an "Inventory Management" specialist was.. I had joined the Air Force to get into electronics.. or into Armed Forces Radio.. even a tailgunner as I saw in the old World War II movies.... not into Supply.... The flight from San Antonio to Denver stopped in Colorado Springs I remember.. but thats about all I recall any more.. except I was expecting to be ordered around and marched into formation when the flight got to Stapleton.. My first suprise was being treated 'normally' again .. after six weeks of being regimented at Lackland.

The Airman First Class who got us on the bus gave a running tour of Denver as we drove onto the base.. and into the PATS area.. PATS meaning "Personnel Awaiting Training Status".. aka .. your school class to begin.. I was with my Dorm Chief from basic.. Walker.. he was from Philadelphia and was headed ito aircraft maintence .. I had met him on the jet down to basic in August actually.. and I remember he took the fifth of vodka that Jeff Kemmerer had given me when I left Allentown and drank straight out of the bottle like it was water.. Anyway after one night in PATS.. several of us were told that we needed to get over to our Training Squadron barracks, as our class had started the day we arrived and were already a day late.

Supply school was six weeks, just like basic was.. and just like in basic.. after a month we were given the opportunity to select our permanent party assignment.. Naturally.. everyone selected Lowry but no one in memory had ever recieved it.. I chose California.. any base out there would do fine.. and a week or so later.. I recieved an assignment to Luke AFB in Phoenix.. Now the fun began when everyone in my class starts to swap assignments .. I entered a 3 way swap with two of my classmates.. One had recived Myrtle Beach South Carolina, and wanted to go to Florida.. another had recieved Tyndall AFB near Panama City and wanted to go home to Phoenix.. Having never been to Arizona.. we worked a 3 way swap and I wound up going to Myrtle Beach AFB South Carolina ..

On November 4th, I turned 18 years old and the snow was falling .. it snowed nearly a foot and I almost missed graduating on time.. But on November 7th... I got on a Continental Airlines red eye jet bound for Chicago... then Pittsburg.. then Allentown.. Twelve weeks after leaving Allentown.. I was home.. on my first leave ... on my way to Myrtle Beach SC....

I dindn't stay home long.. I went up to Hamilton Street and found out very quickly the phrase..."you can't go home again".. most of my friends from High School had either gone to college or were working.. and those who weren't I really wasn't interested in anyway.. so after a week.. I had my mother drive me down to Philadelphia.. where I got on another plane.. this time bound for South Carolina.. or so I thought. Within three weeks I was a long way from South Carolina, a long way from the United States. I was right in the middle of Operation Linebacker II of the Vietnam War, being sent on Temporary Duty to Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base.

The adventure of my life was beginning.....

The Air Force sent me to many places, some good, some less than so. Here are some links to some of my more favorite assignments:

Myrtle Beach AFB SC, 354th Tactical Fighter Wing

Korat RTAFB Thailand, 354th Tactical Fighter Wing (Deployed)

Ramstein AB Germany, 86th Tactical Fighter Wing

RAF Alconbury UK, 10th Tactical Reconnosance Wing

Shaw AFB SC, 363rd Tactical Reconnosance Wing